Drowned in Problems
by siriusblackofgryffindor
Summary: 'So many problems.' 'Something always goes wrong.' 'How do I stop them' There are too many problems in Riven's life. How should he deal with them all? Are his methods of dealing with the pain the right methods? Semi-AU one-shot, done for the 10 Characters, 10 Prompts Challenge.


**A/N: So, I took up a challenge on WCFC called the 10 characters, 10 prompts Challenge, where you are given exactly that. Ten characters and ten prompts. You then have to assign a prompt to a character and write a fic about those two things. In my list of ten characters, I was given Riven. I **_**was **_**going to leave the best till last (you **_**cannot **_**argue that Riven is anything less than the best) but then this plot bunny hit me. In this one-shot I explore Riven and his bunch of problems, and how he deals with said problems. **

**This is just my way of getting rid of my own anger and hurt and all that stuff (which I have a **_**lot **_**of) by using 'verbal diarrhoea' (a term used by my history teacher meaning 'to ramble') to write down my thoughts and then forming them into one Winx-ified coherent storyline.**

**Character: Riven, Prompt: Lost Boys**

* * *

He was only two and a half hours old when his mother dumped him in his father's arms, effectively abandoning him.

"_Oh, shut _up_, child!" she screeched. She snatched him out of the crib, not even bothering to hold him properly._

_Her newborn son, Riven, cried harder. He seemed to know what was going on. Somehow, he knew that this was goodbye. "Will you just quieten down for a minute and let me think?! You've only been in this wretched world for two fricking hours and yet you're already doing my head in!" she complained. And then she muttered, "At least when I find your father, wherever he is, I won't have to put up with you anymore." _

_She ran down the hallway with him. He was in the sleep suit the hospital gave him, she was in her old faded nightdress. She called out, "Harry! Harry, where are you, my love?" in her sweetest voice. If she was to find him, she would have to sweetly coax him out._

_Then when he believed that everything would finally turn out how he wanted, she would drop her bombshell. His heart would shatter, and then she would be free. Free from the wrath of having to be a caring wife and a nurturing mother. She was too cruel to play along with Harry at their game of Happy Families, even if they were trying to get along for Riven's sake. _

_Finally, her son silenced himself, and his eyes opened. He gazed up at her with innocence. His eyes were a bright violet, just like his father's. It made it all the easier to let him go. _

"_Sasha? Are you OK?" she heard. She tore her eyes off her son, and came face to face with the man who had given her the person in her arms. She hated him. _

_She smirked evilly. "Yes," she said simply. "But listen to me, Harry."_

_He looked into her navy eyes with his violet ones. "I'd do anything for you, Sasha." He smiled at her._

"_You now have full custody of him." She thrust Riven into her husband's arms. He looked at her, surprised. Riven started bawling once again._

"_Sasha..." he trailed off, unable to find the right words._

"_No," she said firmly. "He's yours. You have full responsibility over him. If anything happens to him, _you _sort it out. Don't come running to me. You watch him grow, you enrol him into school, you greet any girls he brings home. I don't want anything to do with him."_

_With that, the woman packed her things haphazardly into a suitcase. _

_After he heard the door slam shut, Harry sighed. "I'm sorry, Riven. I'm sorry you had to have this in your life just after you were born," he whispered._

_He cradled Riven, trying to stop the tears. After another half hour, Riven had cried himself to sleep._

Back then, Riven dealt with his problems by crying his heart out.

* * *

When Riven was seven, his best friend moved away.

"_Riven, stop," Inaya called, gasping for breath._

_Riven stopped running, and waited for the tan-skinned girl to catch up to him. When she stopped halfway and put her hands on her knees, Riven made his way over to her. "Inny?" he asked softly. Inaya didn't answer him. "Inny, what is it?" _

_Inaya sat on the tile floor. "Riven. Sit down." Her voice conveyed almost no emotion; it was surprising for a young girl of seven._

"_Inny..." His voice was a warning._

_But then she burst into tears. "Oh, Riven," she sobbed. Riven was worried about his best friend. What was going on? He suddenly felt bad for scolding her for not telling him what was wrong._

_He wrapped her in a hug. "Inny, what's wrong?"_

"_We're... we're... moving away..." she whispered._

"_What?! When?!" Riven asked in disbelief._

"_Tomorrow morning." Inaya hugged him tight._

"_Why?" Riven closed his eyes. He and Inaya had known each other since kindergarten. That was five years ago. In those five years, they had built up a really strong friendship. He doubted he'd ever find someone else like her. It pained him so much._

"_He has a new job."_

"_Who? Your dad?"_

_She shook her head. "Jamie." Jamie was her older brother._

"_Where are you going?" _

"_Some place near a state called Colorado." _

_Riven nodded. He knew the place. His dad once took him there. But New York to Colorado? Talk about a downgrade. _

_xxx_

_Inaya had left with her parents, Jamie and her sister, Alexys, three hours ago. He knew it would take at least another whole day before they arrived there. _

_Already he was feeling an emptiness inside him. He sat on his front steps with his head resting in his hands. He longed for Inaya to come bounding around the corner, instantly putting a smile on his face. He longed for all this to be a dream. He pinched himself in the hope of finding himself in his racing car bed... But, nothing changed._

_He stood up and went inside to get his football. Then, outside again, he kicked it at the house's back wall. The ball bounced off and he backed up so the ball landed at his feet. _

_He kicked it more forcefully this time and it flew over the house. He waited and then he heard a splash. It had fallen into the fish pond in their back garden. _

_Riven grumbled and then stalked to the back of the house to go and get it._

Now, his way of dealing with the problems was driving his emotions into some type of distraction.

* * *

When he was ten, his father passed away, leaving him completely alone.

_They were out in the garden, sitting. Well. Riven's dad was sitting on a deck chair as he watched Riven sit on the grass and look at things he had found with a magnifying glass. _

_He smiled softly: these memories were the best of the memories with his only son. After his best friend, Inaya, moved up to a new state altogether, Riven had visibly... deflated. He didn't want to spend time with his other friends. He didn't want to leave his room. Inaya meant a lot to Riven, and it was hard seeing the friendship break._

_It hurt the older man to see his own son in such a depressed state; he never even knew a seven year old kid could zone the world out like Riven had done._

_Inaya left three years ago, and had not been in touch since, despite her consistent promises. It had slowly taken its toll on the now ten year old boy. For a year and a half, Riven grieved. He didn't eat as much as he used to; he didn't go out to play football with his friends; he never made a snarky comment to anyone (because he never left the house in the first place); he lost a _lot _of weight. A lot meaning a few stone._

_But now, as far as he could see, Riven was recovering fast. He ate more, he went out and played football, basketball and even a bit of tennis. He had developed an interest in nature. He was turning into a cheeky, snide little thing. It showed he was moving on._

_But now his heart would be broken irreplaceably. Harry had an illness. An illness which he never thought he'd get: leukaemia._

_His time was very limited now. The doctors revealed that he wouldn't live till the end of this week! He tried not to believe that, but even he knew he was getting weaker._

_Riven looked up from the ground. "Dad?" he asked. He walked over to the deck chair. "Why were you in the doctors so long yesterday?"_

_Harry's heart dropped. Why did he have to do this now? "Riven..."_

_And then he started sweating. He gripped the chair, finding his clothes way too hot to be in. Riven gasped. "Dad!" he yelled._

"_Phone... Number... Kitchen... Doctor... Now!" Harry ordered in broken sentences. _

_Riven was gone in an instant. Harry rolled up his sleeves and his trouser legs. He unbuttoned his shirt. He started bleeding heavily from his nose and gums; he knew this was the end of his forty three year old life._

"_Riven!" he called. _

_Riven was by his side almost as soon as he had yelled. "Dad, no!" _

_Riven held his father's hand as he looked into his eyes. "Riven..." the older man whispered. "I'm sorry... I've been a failure to you..."_

_Tears slipped out of Riven's eyes as his father's head rolled backwards. He shook his head, whispering, "You did all you could, Dad."_

_xxx_

_It had been three years since Riven's father's death. Riven had turned into a depressed mess again. He never ate anymore. He skipped meals _all the time_; whereas when Inaya left, his father did make him eat. _

_He'd gone from eight stone to five and a half. His foster parents didn't care. He was a mess._

Then he'd gone from distraction to starvation.

* * *

At sixteen, he enrolled at Red Fountain. He met Musa there. They had a strong relationship for a year, and then it all fell apart.

"_It's not my fault!" Musa yelled._

_Riven frowned. "Oh, really?" Musa nodded. "Justify that." _

"I _didn't try to get laid with some random girl!" She reasoned._

_Riven growled. "I was drunk, OK?!" _

"_And whose fault was that!"_

"_You know I can't help it! After everything I've ever been through in my entire life, getting drunk is the least of my problems." Riven's voice wavered in the end._

"_Getting drunk _six _times in a month is not a problem?!" Musa asked incredulously._

"_It's not my fault I have a drug addiction!" Riven yelled._

"_Riven... you're only seventeen... You can't do this to yourself..." Musa softened suddenly._

"_I can. And I damn well will," Riven said, eyeing her suspiciously._

"_Well, then... I can't do this... I won't stick around while someone tries to kill themselves, and won't accept help. Goodbye, Riven. I'm sorry it turned out like this." _

_And then Musa turned, her midnight blue hair fanning itself around her, and walked away._

"_Musa!" he called. Musa kept on walking._

_xxx_

_Riven sat on his bed, with a can of beer in his hands. No one knew about the numerous cans he had stashed away, apart from the guys he shared a room with. He'd made them promise not to tell on him, or else their futures wouldn't look good._

_He took a gulp, and smiled. Using the drink helped him forget about his problems. It helped him be free, even if the next day he woke up with a killer hangover. He had gotten hang of living life in a hangover: he'd been to endless classes after drinking and no-one suspected a thing._

_He took another swing, and set the can down on his bedside table._

_He didn't need a girl. He was better off without one. _

_And then the door of his room opened. He instinctively took hold of his can; the guys had tendencies to take his drinks and throw them away, in a failed attempt to get him to stop. _

_One of his friends, Sky, walked in and set his eyes on Riven._

"_You OK, Riv?" Sky asked absent mindedly, walking over to his side of the room. _

"_Yeah. Never been better." He took another sip, and Sky saw._

"_Alright, what happened?" Sky asked, folding his arms. He looked down at Riven sternly._

"_What do you mean, what happened? I'm fine." Riven asked, although it was the plain obvious now._

"_Riven…" Sky warned firmly._

"_Musa broke up with me, OK?!" Another sip._

"_Why? I thought she loved you," Sky said, taking a seat next to the other male._

"_So did I!" Riven sighed, taking yet another sip of the drink in hand. "She said she wouldn't stick around while I tried to kill myself._

"_Look, Riven, give me the can." Sky held out his hand._

"_No!" Riven protested._

"_Do you love Musa?" Sky asked suddenly._

"_Yes!"_

"_Would you do anything to keep her? Anything and everything?"_

_Riven hesitated. He sipped at the can again. "Most things, yeah," he finally said._

_Sky was close to giving up. He tried one last thing. "Riven, look. You're a seventeen year old guy. You have your whole _life_ ahead of you. You can't just… drink it away."_

"_Yes, I can." A sip of the drink. "And I will." He downed the remainder._

"_Riven, when you joined Red Fountain, you were only six stone," Sky started saying. "Do you remember how Musa helped you get through the starvation and got you up to nine? Remember how she would sit calmly with you while you ate tiny amounts of everything? Do you want to let all that go?" _

"_Sky, you are really not helping the situation!" Riven warned._

"_Riven, I give up!" Sky said, standing up and walking to the door. "If you want to ruin your life, then go ahead. But when things go wrong, don't come running to me."_

_Then he opened the door, and walked out of the door. _

_Riven went to get another beer. He sat back on his bed and drank this can in two gulps. He knew he shouldn't, but the pain was too much. _

_Losing his girlfriend, and then his best friend was just too hard on him. It seemed like he was losing everything in life. First his mother, then Inaya, then his father, Musa and now Sky._

_If there was nothing in his life, what was the point in living?_

Now it was drinking. If anything made him angry or upset, he would resort to alcohol.

There was no escape from the problems in his life, so what was the harm in creating one more?


End file.
